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doomesticJul 7, 2010
Where do they get the money to do this amazing stuff? I cannot see a commercial benefit coming out of this in the short run.
havok3114Jul 7, 2010
If they can keep the machine flying, and it has a high enough ceiling, it can be a replacement for some communication satellites and a lot cheaper to produce. Rather than a company launching a huge constellation of satellites, they get a bunch of these and keep them in the air, rotating them around. They can have constant communication for a fraction of the price of getting something into orbit.
doomesticJul 7, 2010
Sounds interesting. But wouldn't littering the air with these disrupt world flight routs and would be an aviation risk?
blqysmgJul 7, 2010
No doomestic, the key here is how high they can fly. Commercial flights are generally limited to 37,000 feet. This kind of aircraft can fly much higher than that. It does not need oxygen for the engines. Also, "littering the sky" with these airplanes is quite a stretch, since you'd not need to put many up over any given area.
Closed AccountJul 7, 2010
well.... it wouldn't need O² for the engines, but at altitudes above 37k ft you may encounter difficulty with prop driven aircraft. I could be wrong, but I think the air at those altitudes becomes too thin for props to be effective.
dullnationJul 7, 2010
100ft per minute.
Anyone care to figure out how long that would take to get around the globe?
subductionJul 7, 2010
The computer you are using to post doesn't have a calculator?
e1aceJul 7, 2010
100ft per minute = 1.13636364 miles per hour
Average diameter of earth = 7917 miles
So it would take 290 days - on average - to travel around the world.
At most it'll take 913 days if you went around the equator.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
e1aceJul 8, 2010
Yes my bad. I knew I shouldn't have rushed it...
blqysmgJul 7, 2010
100 feet per minute is the VERTICAL speed, or rate of climb they were experiencing. This is fairly low, but not bad. Thermals can have vertical movement of air of around 400 to 1000 feet per minute, so if they can climb slowly until they find a thermal, they can use the natural updraft to climb more quickly.
I'd like to know what the power-off rate of descent of the plane in still air is. This would tell us how long it would stay in the air with dead batteries. Similarly, how much power does it take to maintain level flight? Obviously, they believe they will have enough reserve electricity in the batteries to maintain at least a slow enough controlled descent to still be airborne after the dark hours.
protodonJul 7, 2010
What are the practical applications of such a plane? All I can think of is military drone and that's not really piquing my interest.
dervish108Jul 7, 2010
Haha, one of the guys is named Piccard.
cschoepsJul 7, 2010
And he's balding...
islander2137Jul 7, 2010
What if it fails?
Closed AccountJul 7, 2010
it will be awesome if it fails...... imagine the epic comment boards..... but it would be cool if it succeeded and we got some new and improved planes out of it.....
what if it fails and crashes into some country and kills some higher up and we go to war cause of it lol wow.... too much weed in the morningComment is buried, click here to see the rest.
byikesJul 7, 2010
They learn something and try again.
captainplanetJul 7, 2010
Good luck to it!
brainscapeJul 7, 2010
I hope there will be a time when this can be commercialized. The peanuts and headphones will still cost you though.